Under de senaste hundra åren har betydelsen av goda familjeförhållanden och gott föräldraskap betonats allt mer i debatt och politik. Men vad utgör ett gott föräldraskap, och hur skapas goda mödrar och fäder? Svaret på dessa frågor förändrats under det senaste seklet. Såväl föräldraskapet självt som försöken att påverka det genomgår ständiga förändringar. Adoptionsutredningar, assisterad befruktning för lesbiska par samt föräldrars engagemang i sina barns skolgång är några av de frågor som i boken får belysa samhällsutvecklingen. Att vara förälder till ett barn kan tyckas vara en naturlig och ursprunglig relation, men påverkas i högsta grad av tid, plats och sociala villkor. Bokens författare är historiker och samhällsvetare verksamma vid olika universitet och högskolor runt om i Sverige.
Fatherhood ideals have been changing over the last decades, and Sweden has often been seen as a fore-runner when it comes to both fatherhood policies and gender equality. In this article, we investigate how discourses about engaged, Swedish fathers and various formulations of gender equality are linked to and used in the discursive production of Sweden as a nation. We use three communication campaigns launched by the Swedish Institute (a governmental organization with the task of marketing Sweden), issued between 1968 and 2015. All campaigns emphasize modernity, rationality and self-development, but the earliest represents women and men while the latter campaigns focus exclusively on fathers, giving Swedish gender equality a conflict-free, already achieved quality. While the campaigns challenge established gendered patterns, they also avoid fundamental questions of power and contribute to rendering invisible a significant gap between gender equality in theory and in practice in Swedish society.
This article discusses the status of the concept of hegemonic masculinity in research on men and boys in Sweden, and how it has been used and developed. Sweden has a relatively long history of public debate, research, and policy intervention in gender issues and gender equality. This has meant, in sheer quantitative terms, a relatively sizeable corpus of work on men, masculinities, and gender relations. There is also a rather wide diversity of approaches, theoretically and empirically, to the analysis of men and masculinities. The Swedish national context and gender equality project is outlined. This is followed by discussion of three broad phases in studies on men and masculinities in Sweden: the 1960s and 1970s before the formulation of the concept of hegemonic masculinity; the 1980s and 1990s when the concept was important for a generation of researchers developing studies in more depth; and the 2000s with a younger generation committed to a variety of feminist and gender critiques other than those associated with hegemonic masculinity. The following sections focus specifically on how the concept of hegemonic masculinity has been used, adapted, and indeed not used, in particular areas of study: boys and young men in family and education; violence; and health. The article concludes with review of how hegemonic masculinity has been used in Swedish contexts, as: gender stereotype, often out of the context of legitimation of patriarchal relations; "Other" than dominant, white middle-class "Swedish," equated with outmoded, nonmodern, working-class, failing boy, or minority ethnic masculinities; a new masculinity concept and practice, incorporating some degree of gender equality; and reconceptualized and problematized as a modern, heteronormative, and subject-centered concept.
In this article, we explore Swedish men's relations to fatherhood in general and in particular to the new ideal of the caring and present father. We argue that the image of contemporary hegemonic masculinity is gradually changing. Reforms and informational strategies are used to enhance and create the "new father." In this article, we explore and analyze how four different groups of Swedish men-Christian men, psychotherapists, a male network, and immigrant men-relate to and discuss issues concerning new gender ideals, the modern father, and fathers as important caretakers. These issues are explored through four focus group interviews. The results from the study point toward the influences of factors such as age, social background, and religion. We also see that the ideology of gender equality has a strong general influence on men's ways of relating to and phrasing these issues. © 2008 Sage Publications.
This article explores the way different groups of Swedish men experience and relate to issues concerning fatherhood, paternity leave and gender equality – how they together construct fatherhood in the field of tension between normative societal visions and their own lived reality. The study included four groups of men: men working in a centre for men in crisis, men involved in a network organization for masculinity issues, men in an association promoting security and social justice in a multiethnic suburb (a majority of the men had immigrant background) and men involved in a Christian church.Conceptions of fatherhood and gender equality were explored through focus group interviews. As starting point for the interviews the groups were confronted with materials from the last 30 years of state initiated paternity leave campaigns. The result confirms conclusions made in previous research, namely that Swedish men in general have a positive attitude to active parenthood. With few exceptions the groups expressed a child orientation and a positive approach to gender equality and shared parental responsibilities. Despite common ground on the importance of fathers taking active part in child care, the four groups displayed differences in the way they conceptualized the question. They related to different experiences and often used different ways of expressing thought, emotions and observations. The result points toward the influence of factors such as age, social and professional position, ethnic background and religion. The group of men working at the crisis centre primarily used individual rather than societal perspectives. Their main concern was the impact of the campaigns on men’s psychological well-being. The group of men from the Christian church placed the question of fatherhood in the context of preserving and promoting the family. In the group dominated by men with immigrant background, the fatherhood question was mainly framed through references to the economic hard-ship and social exclusion distinguishing many multi-ethnical Swedish suburbs.
Varför har det varit så svårt att enas om en politik som markerar mannens individuella ansvar som förälder? Roger Klinths genomgång av kvoteringsdebatten från 1960-talet till 1995 visar att det politiska tänkandet inte har lyckats rymma radikala krav på jämställdhet.
This article explores how men's identity, capacity and responsibility as parents were understood and communicated in Swedish, government initiated, paternity leave campaigns, 1976-2006. Images of the "new father" are analyzed in relation to Swedish equal status policy, emphasizing men's and women's mutual responsibility for child care as well as economic provision. The result indicates that paternity leave campaigns represented something progressive and historically unique. Frequent depictions of men performing and talking about care work challenged traditional notions of men and masculinity. However, the campaigns also reproduced notions of gender relations that undercut, rather than supported, a radical vision of gender equality. In the period 1976-2001, men were positioned as secondary rather than primary parents. The early 2000s, however, saw a shift in the way fatherhood was represented in the campaigns. In contrast to earlier campaigns, men and women were given the same responsibility for parental leave--"Half each!"
Jubileer av olika slag bidrar till att rikta uppmärksamheten bakåt, mot ursprunget, mot historien. Hur såg startpunkten ut och vilka vägar har lett fram till den punkt vi nu befinner oss vid? Att lära känna sin historia, både som individ och organisation, är viktigt. Det stärker identiteten och ger endjupare förståelse för nuet. I fallet Forum för genusvetenskap och jämställdhet erbjuder också historieskrivningen en intressant resa genom de senaste decenniernas utveckling vad gäller genusforskning och jämställdhetsarbete. Historien om Forum synliggör den i många fall snabba och omvälvande utveckling som dessa områden genomgått – både vad gäller begrepp, metoder och kunskapsintressen. Det fokus på kvinnoforskning– forskning om kvinnor och av kvinnor – som präglade den första tiden under 1980-talet har idag ersatts av en mer mångfacetterad begreppsflora. Nya perspektiv och kunskapsintressen har vuxit fram. Begrepp som kritisk manlighetsforskning, intersektionalitet, queerperspektiv etcetera markerar nya sätt att förstå och beforska könsrelationer.
“I’ve read that women in Sweden find a man pushing the pram sexier than anything else”. Så startar inslaget i australiensiska 60 Minutes om svensk pappaledighet (60 Minutes: 2017) Inslaget sändes i samband med att fotoutställningen Swedish Dads visades i Sydney. Bakom utställningen stod Svenska institutet tillsammans med svenska ambassaden i Australien. Visningen i Sydney var endast ett av stoppen på utställningens långa världsturné. Under 2016 och 2017 visades Swedish Dads i sammanlagt 40 länder (Svenska institutet 1: 2017).
Fotoutställningen utgjorde en del av Svenska institutets informationsinsatser till utlandet om Sverige och svenska förhållanden. Svenska institutet är en statlig myndighet och har som mål att via ”strategisk kommunikation /…/ öka omvärldens förtroende och intresse för Sverige” och stärka ”Sveriges attraktionskraft” (Svenska institutet 2: 2017). Svenska institutets arbete kan beskrivas som en form av varumärkesbyggande (Klinth: 2012). Eller som institutet själva uttrycker saken: ”Vi levandegör berättelsen om dagens Sverige.” (Svenska institutet 2: 2017)
This study gives a historical perspective on the Swedish parental leave and the political vision of equal parenthood. The aim is to point out the specific conditions for male citizenship. By studying the political processes and power relations which gave rise to the parental leave of 1974 and has continued to influence its content, the study tries to explore the implicit and explicit demands and expectations which the state has placed on men. The concept of hegemony is used as an overarching framework for interpreting gender political processes. The analysis is based mainly on material from the political decision making processes, but also party-political and debate material is used.
The starting point is taken in the debate on equal opportunities and gender roles, which began in the 1960s. The new ways of interpreting gender and family relationships that were formed in this debate soon came to affect the political decision making processes. The analyses of the parental insurance reform (1974) emphasize the reform as a compromise between conflicting political interests. By making parental insurance a free choice both right wing and socialist principles could be adhered to. In this way neither the family's freedom of choice nor the aim of evening out differences between the social classes were threatened. Equal parenting remained a private matter, which every family should be able to decide on for itself. In this way a political point could be made - fathers have the same responsibility for childcare as mothers - without involving any far-reaching complications for other societal interests.
The consensus, which had been established as to how male emancipation could be achieved politically, soon began to creak at the joints. In the middle of the I970s demands for a compulsory division of parental leave coloured the debate. Demands for quotas gave rise to a new equal rights policy crisis, and once again male emancipation's conditions were brought to the fore. By focusing on the question of what instruments the state should use in order to make men participate in the parental leave, the study tries to explain the specific logic of the male citizenship.
The study of the political processes in the period 1974-1995 shows that the ambition to increase men's use of parental insurance never received superior status in relation to other important political goals. As a rule, the family's freedom of choice, state and family economics, parent'sconditions on the labour market etc. were prioritised. In the complicated political decision making processes that formed the outlines of the parental insurance a clear distinction between men and women was made. Men's participation were defined as a voluntary commitment - something they could do if they wanted or considered possible due to their labour market conditions, - while women's participation was described in terms of necessity.
Både under sin livstid och efter sin brutala död en sen februarikväll 1986 har Olof Palme väckt starka känslor. Få svenska politiker har haft så många beundrare – och belackare. 1969 efterträdde han Tage Erlander som partiordförande för Socialdemokratiska arbetarpartiet. Samma år tog han också över jobbet som Sveriges statsminister. Det är i första hand engagemanget för tredje världen och ställningstagandet mot USA:s krig i Vietnam som brukar lyftas fram när den historiska bilden av Palme tecknas. För en bred allmänhet är förmodligen hans engagemang i jämställdhetspolitiska frågor mer okänt. Det är dock den jämställdhetspolitiske agitatorn Olof Palme vi möter i hans linjetal från socialdemokratiska partikongressen 1972.
I mitten av 1970-talet framträdde brottaren Hoa-Hoa Dahlgren på reklampelare landet runt, iklädd blågul t-tröja och med ett naket spädbarn på armen. Bilden ingick i Försäkringskassans kampanj för att övertyga fäder att bli mer aktiva och närvarande i familjelivet. Sedan dess har det producerats mängder av liknande kampanjer, riktade till män och fäder och med syftet att skapa moderna, jämställda och barnorienterade män. Den här boken är både en historisk studie av fyrtio års jämställdhetsarbete för att göra pappa med barn och en studie av dagens fäder och föräldraskap. Hur resonerar män som väljer att stanna hemma och ta ut lång föräldraledighet? Det moderna faderskapet visar sig vara en komplex historia.
Utbildningen vid svenska universitet och högskolor är mitt uppe i en förändringsprocess, en anpassning till den så kallade Bolognamodellen. Denna innebär tydligare och fastare ramar för utbildningen, både när det gäller organisation och utbildningsideologi. I denna process gäller emellertid särskilda villkor för yrkesutbildningarna. Dessa skall anpassas till de gemensamma ramarna, men ges samtidigt större möjlighet än andra utbildningar att skapa en intern utbildningslogik. Yrkesutbildning skall, av pedagogiska skäl, även fortsättningsvis planeras och organiseras som en sammanhängande helhet, vilket innebär att gränsen mellan grundnivå och avancerad nivå bli mindre tydlig. Detta skapar ett friutrymme, men det ställer också stora krav på planering och genomförande av en tydlig progression. Den här artikeln behandlar en av de största utbildningarna, lärarutbildning, och den tar sin utgångspunkt i just det som yrkesutbildningarna har att hantera – frihet, men inom snävare ramar. I fokus står begreppet progression och frågan om hur progression kan förstås och iscensättas i en bolognaanpassad lärarutbildning.